~ My mission…'to catch a trout from a river in every county'

SUFFOLK

Not much help from this search engine, eh?! Or most of the others, so patience and persistence was called for.

From my ‘where to’ sites, I chanced upon UKFishersOnline, and made a speculative call to the telephone number given for a ‘trout stretch’ on a river near Bury St Edmunds. I was delighted to talk to John Anderson who listened interestedly as I described my ‘mission’ and he volunteered to help me. I was to call him nearer the time of my planned visit.

As it happened I called him from Amsterdam whilst visiting Son and D-i-L #2, and, GS 1&4.

A lady answered – “Oh, you’re the fisherman!” she commented….. I liked that!

Everything was quickly arranged after talking to John, and he mailed me a map to show outside which Red Lion pub, we should meet, and from which map I determined that I was to fish the water of the Lark Angling & Preservation Society.

I had found their website, but this informed me that no trout water memberships were available, nor day tickets, so my ‘fortune favours the bold’ approach to John was lucky, and his response was generous (a word which features in this blog several times!)

The site informed me that –

“The River Lark rises south of Bury St. Edmunds and flows north-west across Suffolk and into Cambridgeshire, where it joins the Great Ouse near Prickwillow. In its upper and middle reaches the Lark is a lowland chalk stream….”

and

“The Society also has some 6 miles of Fly Fishing water available on the River Lark between Bury St Edmunds & Mildenhall Suffolk

This is a great Fly Fishing experience with Wild Brown Trout in excess of 4lbs and stocked Brown Trout up to 6lbs in Weight”

May 2011 – the Lark

I travelled to Bury from North Norfolk and enjoyed a lovely drive on a beautiful Spring morning with the sun streaming through the coniferous woodlands south of Swafham and the hard wood area of Thetford. The Forestry Commission do a marvellous job in Thetford and the Stag at Lynford is rather special.

John is a retired GP,

so it was unlikely that I would be able to read the content of his hand written joining instructions to me, but I did and we met at the prescribed time!

A short run to the river and an interesting chat about LAPS followed,

including the comment that ‘not many fish had been taken so far this season’. But, John kindly walked the bank and indicated some likely ‘where’s’, but on a sunny but windy morning, not only was casting difficult into runs between reeds which were already narrowing the flow, inside quite heavily silted bank sides, but there seemed to be little fly life, too. John noted that on a gravel pit nearby, there were six cormorants!

We saw no fish move that morning, (except, for maybe one chub) and I concluded, that in the bright light, fish were in the reedy margins, and my visit’ highlights were confined to good conversation with John, and his kind invitation to return, later in the season.

Eager to see more of the LAPS water, I ventured upstream, and on the road bridge just shy of Lackford, I spooked a small fish, which motivates and means I must return!